Yasmin, what's new?

Yasmin Thon likes to keep a lot of balls in the air. She needs it, she says. She is involved in a local citizens’ initiative for urban development, recently registered a business for networking events, is studying business psychology in Vienna alongside her job, has two children, and, for the past few months, has had a new job as Head of People Operations at an AI start-up in Munich. “It has actually always been like that,” says the 39-year-old. “But I only recently learned not to listen when people say I take on too much. I simply have to do more than most people to be happy.”

Yasmin has always had ideas, or, to put it another way, ants in her pants. But there was a time when that drive went nowhere, when she kept trying again and again and still could not move forward. “Something was always missing. I just did not know for a very long time what it was.”

Today she knows. It was not talent or motivation. It was someone who could show her paths, explain things, open doors, and say from experience: You can do this, and this is what the next step could look like. Experts refer to the economic, cultural, and social resources a person receives through their family background. Together, these resources make up the diversity dimension of social background, one of seven dimensions that, according to the Charta der Vielfalt (Diversity Charter), shape our working world.

How Netzwerk Chancen creates access

This is exactly where Netzwerk Chancen comes in. The nonprofit works to reduce these barriers, including through a mentoring program that connects people from disadvantaged backgrounds with experienced mentors from partner organizations, among others. Haufe Group has been part of the program since the beginning of 2025. “As Haufe Group, we want to help people be more successful in their jobs,” says Noa Sina Glatz, Inclusion Officer at Haufe Group. “The partnership fits very well with that. We share knowledge both through the mentoring program and through workshops for Netzwerk Chancen members, and in doing so, we create access.”

For Noa, this is not a voluntary add-on, but part of corporate responsibility. After all, the conditions a person starts life with are not in their own hands. That is why society needs to actively counterbalance this through social systems, redistribution, and programs like the one run by Netzwerk Chancen. “Companies have a much bigger lever here than individuals, not only in recruiting, but also through sponsorships, university programs, or mentorship.”

What social background does to a career

Yasmin noticed early on that some things came very easily to her: bringing people together, communicating, getting others on board. She dreamed of studying psychology. But no one could explain to her how that was supposed to work, organizationally, financially, or at all. Her mother raised Yasmin and her three siblings on her own and only returned to her office job when Yasmin was ten. After tenth grade, Yasmin also completed vocational training as an office communications clerk, started work at a tax consultancy in a neighboring village in northern Hesse, and was deeply unhappy. The only person who told her that, with her grades, she should be at university was her vocational school teacher. “That motivated me,” Yasmin remembers.

“Just having been to university at all was already more than I had ever expected.”

After a long search and many phone calls with the authorities, she applied for a subject-specific university entrance qualification in Hesse, passed the exams, and enrolled at the University of Kassel in business-oriented Romance studies. She studied, went abroad, and started working student jobs. Four side jobs at the same time, because money was tight. At some point, she was working more than she was studying, could not earn the credits she needed, and dropped out. “At the time, it felt right. Just having been at university at all was already more than I had ever expected.”

Over time, however, she realized that without a degree she could not get the jobs she actually wanted, despite the many years of professional experience she had built up. Again and again, she worked in assistant roles and was assigned tasks instead of being able to shape things herself.

“You can imagine it like two people standing in front of a mountain. Both have to perform to get to the top. But one has a compass, a backpack, and hiking boots. And the other first asks themselves: Can I even do this?”

For Valentin Burgert, Yasmin's situation is typical. He is responsible for the mentoring program at Netzwerk Chancen. Many of the more than 550 mentees Netzwerk Chancen has supported are ambitious and still run into barriers again and again. “You can imagine it like two people standing in front of a mountain. Both have to perform to get to the top. But one has a compass, a backpack, and hiking boots. And the other first asks themselves: Can I even do this?” When people in this group fail, they often blame themselves, Valentin says. “The systemic factor of social background is often overlooked.”

A mentoring tandem between Haufe Group and Netzwerk Chancen

Yasmin, too, was convinced for a long time that the problem was her. “I thought, this is as far as you get. That’s it for you.” Still, she could never give up. She started new jobs and eventually began studying again, this time alongside her work. Not because she knew exactly where all of it was supposed to lead. But she felt that there had to be more. In the middle of this phase, she came across Netzwerk Chancen. There, she read about social background, lack of access, invisible barriers, and recognized much of her own experience. She applied for the mentoring program and filled out the questionnaire: current situation, challenges, industry, development direction. A few weeks later, she was matched with Gabriel Lehmann, Head of Talent Acquisition at Haufe Group.

Gabriel, 41, has been responsible for Talent Acquisition at Haufe Group since 2019. He smiles when he thinks back to the first Teams call: “Yasmin was bursting with drive and energy.” She talked about the citizens’ initiative, the business, her studies, and mentioned almost in passing that she was currently looking for a job in HR. “At first, we actually wanted to leave the application topic out of it,” Yasmin recalls. What she really wanted to do first was sort things out: What can I do? What fits me? Which direction feels right?

Direction, not instruction

They did not spend long just sorting, because Yasmin was already in motion. “Yasmin, what’s new?” quickly became a running joke between the two of them. Most of the time, she brought situations with her: a job interview, a moment of uncertainty, a new idea, something that was currently on her mind. Gabriel listened, then reached into his toolbox. Whenever he came across something in his day-to-day work that might help her—in conversations with his team, during research, in a training session—he made a note of it: competency matrix, interview techniques, learning pyramid, change of perspective. In the next conversation, he brought out whatever fit the situation and worked through it with her. That is what helped her most, Yasmin says: “Gabriel kept reassessing the situation and adapting.” Sometimes they worked on applications, sometimes on her own positioning, sometimes on the question of where she wanted to go and where she might rub up against things.

What Yasmin did with that was up to her, and usually she acted very quickly. While Gabriel was curious to see which impulse would have an effect, Yasmin often came back two weeks later with “a complete final report,” he says, laughing. She had not only thought through the ideas, but also implemented them and set the next steps and decisions in motion. “She worked with AI very intuitively and used it as a second sparring partner,” says Gabriel.

During the intense application phase, they spoke weekly. Gabriel went through her resume with her: What comes across clearly? Where do questions arise? What could be understood differently than she intends? They also practiced interviews here and there. “I only ever reflected back to her how I interpreted her as a recruiter. But I never read any cover letters. She did not even share the job postings she was applying for,” Gabriel says. Two months after the tandem had begun, Yasmin had a new job.

What mentoring can do, and what companies can learn from it

For Valentin, this is a visible success. “It shows very clearly what mentoring can do. But often it is also about smaller changes. If a mentee ends up with more clarity and more confidence, that might sound banal, but for someone who has felt lost for a long time, it is a real change.”

Mentors also bring knowledge back into the company. They see where people can fail, even when they have already entered the workforce. “Most people think that social mobility is achieved once you have a degree. But that is not true,” Valentin explains. “Studies show that the barriers may decrease over time, but they never disappear completely. People who are the first in their families to move up socially, for example, take longer on average to be promoted and earn less in comparable jobs than people from privileged families.”

For Valentin, companies therefore have a clear responsibility: they should examine where their own processes create or reinforce barriers. Which resumes are seen as a good fit in recruiting? Which requirements in job postings are truly necessary? Who gets development opportunities, and is it transparent to all employees what performance is expected for the next step? Data collection could also help make blind spots visible. It is especially important to raise awareness among leaders, too. “If a leader thinks: I somehow made it, so the person in front of me should be able to as well, then it becomes difficult to change anything in the company.”

Where access emerges: What Haufe Group is doing

At Haufe Group, Noa says, access is not created through individual campaigns or quotas, but in many different places. In recruiting, for example, this means that no resume is automatically rejected; all are read by people. Employees who make hiring decisions receive training on unconscious bias. And after people have joined the company, the aim is not to leave access to chance. One internal career program, for example, is explicitly aimed at employees with ambition but without previous leadership experience. In training formats, young colleagues practice how to communicate, give feedback, or position themselves. Externally, Haufe Group also tries to bring young people into contact with the company early on, and without needing personal connections, through formats such as Young Talents Night or through funding partnerships.

“For me, the whole topic is therefore a question of culture. And culture shows itself every day in how we hire, develop, and interact with one another.”

“In the end, we are a business. And business success needs people. We depend on our employees and therefore also have a responsibility toward them,” Noa summarizes. What matters, she says, is whether a company creates the right conditions in everyday work so that all these people can take responsibility and contribute their performance, regardless of the starting conditions they come from. “For me, the whole topic is therefore a question of culture. And culture shows itself every day in how we hire, develop, and interact with one another.”

Halfway through, and what's still to come

Yasmin and Gabriel still have six months ahead of them. On the list are HR strategies and the further development of her role. “I’m curious to see what comes next,” says Gabriel. He himself has learned a lot, not only about mentoring, but also professionally, because the conversations are now less about orientation and more about exchange at eye level. Yasmin’s way of working with AI has given Gabriel ideas that are now feeding into an internal project in his team.

And Yasmin? She has found her place, at a start-up that needs her energy, her versatility, and her drive to move things forward. As Head of People Operations, she is now responsible for people strategy herself. She reads resumes, conducts interviews, helps make decisions. She is not free of bias either. “You cannot blame anyone for that. You have to be aware of it, recalibrate, and act.” That is why she wants to pass on what she has experienced through the tandem herself as a mentor. Because for a long time, she was missing exactly that kind of person. Someone who says: You can do this, and this is what the next step could look like.